Peter Quill: I'm gonna ask you this one time: where is Gamora?
Tony Stark: Yeah, I'll do you one better. *Who* is Gamora?
Drax: I'll do *you* one better. *Why* is Gamora?
_________________________________________________________________________________
Gamora: [scoffs] Really? Tears?
Red Skull (Stonekeeper): They are not for him.
*SPOILERS*
What a strange yet, engaging, emotional, debilitating movie. The last time I saw a film where the bad guy was the protagonist and wins was "Manos and the Hands of Fate". If we as the audience didn't know 100% for certain that there was more coming...Infinity Wars would be considered one of the great failures of all time. It was as if a dark depressing juggernaut just smashed all that it took 10 years to make. If that was all she wrote, we, the audience would be crushed, and angry. This is a new tactic and a story telling power that only large scale franchises can exploit. Will it become passe? Will it lose effectiveness if done every 10 years? Will 1-off stories end on a nadir with greater frequency in the future?
I agree with several other writers that the main theme of Infinity Wars was "Sacrifice". Each character was generally presented with an opportunity to sacrifice -physically, mentally, or emotionally. (Spoilers, I think the Soul Stone has greater power than we know and will be critical to part 2.) Yet what disturbed in terms of the sacrifices was how often the torture of another was used as the impetus for action. I know that it is a movie cliche...but the ubiquity of this situation for the characters was over the top. My own preference would be for the writers to not use torture in this way. A. It normalizes torture. B. It makes people think that torture works, which it doesn't. C. It's a little lazy. I can understand that the source material of the comics uses pain and anguish as motivators...but this is something we as a society need to work on.
On the other had, Infinity Wars basically achieves the impossible, it made a 2.5 hour movie compelling across 4-5 major plots and like 20 characters. It was emotionally wrenching and delivered on explosions/magic destruction what have you. I would suggest everyone see it.
3.798 out of 5 stars. THANOS WILL RETURN
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